India Imposes Import Restrictions on Prebuilt PCs

[btarunr]

The Indian Government on Thursday announced restrictions on the import of pre-built laptop and desktop PCs, tablets, and convertibles. These restrictions take effect immediately. The decision is designed to get major PC manufacturers such as Dell, HP, Acer, Lenovo, and Apple, to manufacture their devices on Indian soil, or subject each individual PC model through a lengthy import licensing regime—essentially a penalty for not manufacturing locally. The new restrictions find several parallels to India's 2020 decision to restrict import of TVs, which caused major consumer electronics firms to rush to set up local assembly lines to keep up with the country's market demand.

The restrictions on the import of PCs is seen as complicating things for PC manufacturers, especially as the country heads into its biggest consumer cycle with Diwali (Q4-2023). India's current import restrictions on smartphones and TVs have caused most consumer electronics giants to set up assembly lines in India; however these lines barely contribute 20% of value-addition to the product (i.e. much of the product comes knocked down and is simply put together); however manufacturers are incentivized to localize more of their value-addition, through the country's performance-linked incentives (PLI) scheme. Certain whitebox ODMs have localized even PCB placement, and display panel manufacturing. India's ICT imports for the period of just Q2-2023 stood at $19.7 billion, the country clocks roughly $75-90 billion in ICT/PC sales per year.



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[R0H1T]

I hope this doesn't end up costing me more for the upcoming Strix point(halo?) laptops

 

[Denver]

I have heard rumors that electronics assembled in India suffer from poor quality and premature failure. Someone enlighten me;

 

[R0H1T]

Not from my experience no, you get what you pay for so if you're looking for cheap junk stuff you'd get exactly that. Likewise pretty much anywhere in the world.

 

[Denver]

Not from my experience no, you get what you pay for so if you're looking for cheap junk stuff you'd get exactly that. Likewise pretty much anywhere in the world.

I was looking at some smartphone(Moto G82) reviews on the page of a seller who imports from India, and I saw that there were dozens of customers complaining that the device had defects and premature failures etc.. While the locally assembled version is one of the best selling devices on the local market with comments massively positive.

Hopefully this is an isolated case then...

 

[R0H1T]

Generally speaking more disgruntled users will leave a (negative) review than satisfied users, this isn't just for that one product per se but an observation for most online reviews. For instance I have bought hundreds of products online & really the only time I leave review is when I feel I was cheated by the retailer or manufacturer. I don't review 99/100 items unless I really feel the need to, even for positive reviews.

 

[Chaitanya]

I have heard rumors that electronics assembled in India suffer from poor quality and premature failure. Someone enlighten me;

I have quite a few LG and Samsung electronics which are assembled in India and none have any issues. Though I must say washing machines and dryers these days are not to quality of ones that were made 20-30 years back.

 

[R0H1T]

Most are imported from China, even the high end models.

 

[ixi]

Imagine if companies left out india in tech . That would be knock on their ass.

 

[cvaldes]

Imagine if companies left out india in tech . That would be knock on their ass.

Yeah, that would be funny.

First revenue would drop off a cliff (India recently passed China as the most populous country). Then analysts would downgrade the companies and lower share price targets. Credit agencies would lower the companies' rating making it harder to borrow money.

Shareholders would eventually call for board of director changes and a large investor might try a board takeover.

The best and brightest employees would see the writing on the wall; they are always the first to leave because they have better opportunities elsewhere.

Yes, it most certainly would be a knock on those companies' asses. Hilarious.

Good call, sounds like a great plan.

 

[john_]

India is doing what it's best for it. Using it's 1 billion population in it's advantage. And if based on the article, that move worked with TVs, I bet it will work with PCs also. The timing is also right, considering the ongoing trade war between China and USA. Many countries will want to give reasons to big companies thinking of living China to come build factories in their soil, instead of going anywhere else.

 

[de.das.dude]

again the mudi gormint comes up with new ideas that will milk the middle class more and more

and makes the capitalist industrialists more richer.

tell me who will benefit most from the new industries are going to be setup? i doubt they will be selling things at reasonable costs since its made in india. just like the made in india devices, it will still make the industrialists a good penny.

 

[cvaldes]

India is doing what it's best for it. Using it's 1 billion population in it's advantage. And if based on the article, that move worked with TVs, I bet it will work with PCs also. The timing is also right, considering the ongoing trade war between China and USA. Many countries will want to give reasons to big companies thinking of living China to come build factories in their soil, instead of going anywhere else.

This is not the first nor last time the Indian government will use taxes, tariffs, import regulations, whatever to strengthen their position as a global power.

All countries do this to some extent to protect their own interests. These policies are very fluid and change over time. What is decreed for today may not be in effect five years from now.

For sure India is looking at China's growing tensions with the West as an opportunity to be a reasonable alternative (provided those countries agree to play by India's rules).

India is not rolling out the red carpet for people to march into India's living room and do whatever they please. Nor should they. Their primary responsibility is to look after the best interests of its citizens not the shareholders of foreign corporations like Apple, HP, Lenovo, Daimler Benz, Nestlé, etc.

 

[john_]

tell me who will benefit most from the new industries are going to be setup?

People working in those industries. People getting experience in high technology and maybe 10-20 years latter starting a startup in India. Building factories in a country is at it's citizens best interests, with a couple of rules of course. Good working environment for workers, higher wages than the minimum at least, the average preferably and definitely rules to protect the environment where those factories will build.
Believe me the alternative - not having manufacturing - is much worst. You should not focus on the 10 rich people who will become richer. You should focus on the thousands who will get a good job.

 

[R0H1T]

it will still make the industrialists a good penny.

The biggest beneficiaries are Apple > Nvidia > Qualcomm > Google (MS?) > Dell/HP & maybe Lenovo as well lastly followed by the likes of Pegatron/Foxconn/Wistron et al. The biggest profits still go to the top dog, no matter who makes these products or where! I don't care where they are made as long as the prices don't changes too much for me, though I would definitely prefer them to be "assembled" in India.

 

[Wirko]

India also exports ICT, lots and lots of it, in the form of services. In total, it doesn't look like it's a net importer.

 

[_JP_]

Brasil has similar laws on electronics imports, from decades ago. Didn't really fare that well for them, because it was completely broad and of the few that actually started manufacturing there, counterfeit units started showing-up everywhere until foreign brands tapped-out.

 

[Camm]

Ah India, thinking it can run a heavily protected domestic industry whilst screwing over anyone foreign who actually invests in India. With the rapid shifts in supply chain localisation brought about by IRA and other regional responses to it, its probably going to find itself hitting a brick wall, especially in its services and manufacturing sector.

 

[cvaldes]

Ah India, thinking it can run a heavily protected domestic industry whilst screwing over anyone foreign who actually invests in India. With the rapid shifts in supply chain localisation brought about by IRA and other regional responses to it, its probably going to find itself hitting a brick wall, especially in its services and manufacturing sector.

Laws can always change. In fact they often do.

India could walk back on this next week if they want. I predict that this is not India's last trade regulation that they will ever pass.

Lord knows legislators in the US have changed existing laws, sometimes for better (21st Amendment), sometimes for worse (19th Amendment).

 

[claes]

sometimes for worse (19th Amendment).

Damn I thought we were friends

 

[john_]

Damn I thought we were friends

I am curious about that laughing smile in my post.
Your thoughts? Any kind of thoughts?

 

[claes]

Just the idea that good working conditions and environmentally friendly production are an expectation in India

 

[john_]

Just the idea that good working conditions and environmentally friendly production are an expectation in India

I don't know how life is in India, but I guess people working on high tech industries will get better working conditions compared to trying to find anything on the streets. We shouldn't compare with the living conditions of Germans for example. People migrate from Asia to go to Germany, not the other way. I think people working on these factories, if ever are build, will have better conditions than working elsewhere in India.

Environmentally friendly production. There are dozens of movies with cases of local communities in USA getting poisoned from local factories without knowing it until people start getting cancer at alarming high numbers. I mean, in most countries environmental control is usually wishful thinking that ends up as money in the pockets of officials to make them look away.

 

[prtskg]

again the mudi gormint comes up with new ideas that will milk the middle class more and more

and makes the capitalist industrialists more richer.

tell me who will benefit most from the new industries are going to be setup? i doubt they will be selling things at reasonable costs since its made in india. just like the made in india devices, it will still make the industrialists a good penny.

You can't give jobs to nearly 1B people without manufacturing sector. At the moment, India imports $20B (last quarter data) worth of electronics per quarter and has $150B (2021 data, import has increased more than export in 2022) more import than export. I don't think this is a bad decision especially considering India has bad relation with China, the country it imports most electronics from.

India also exports ICT, lots and lots of it, in the form of services. In total, it doesn't look like it's a net importer.

View attachment 307524

India is a net importer. It's good in services sector but bad in manufacturing.

https://oec.world/en/profile/country/ind/

 

[claes]

I thought China and India were on good terms? Seems more like a move by the G7 and possibly BRICS too to counter western sanctions/maintain G7 reliance on cheap manufacturing